waywardwahoo

Woo, housing!

waywardwahoo — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Nice, the “Miami of France”. I am currently at the Ville St. Exupery in Nice, a world-renowned hostel, claimed to be one of the world’s Top 10 hostels. It’s definitely crazy here, like a party scene every night inside the hostel, with 1Euro beers from vending machines and a bar open til about 1am. The first night I got here, I walked out of the train station and down towards an internet café, where I called home for quite a bit of time, freaking out about the whole trip. It’s possible to feel homesick if you haven’t been home for two months, and the four or so days at home were basically spent trying to recover from jetlag. Traveling without having any plans is definitely harder than it seems, especially because a lot of time is spent trying to find the cheapest places to stay and the cheapest ways to get there. The stress of being unsure about all this information, in addition to the quasi-home sick feeling, all topped off with doing everything alone has been harder to deal with then I imagined.
This hostel has been good in some senses and bad in others. All of the people here are mostly friendly. There’s that feel of solidarity among the backpackers, and stuff is just about safe, and it’s fun if you’re into that party scene, but… there might be a little too much emphasis on the partying as it’s loud into the wee hours of the night, and I dunno, there’s more of that “you’re pretty, I’m pretty, let’s talk” culture, which I am not too fond of.
After the internet café phone calls, I used the internet to book a room in the hostel and headed over. I took the tram to where the hostel picks you up, hoping to find une cabine telephonique there, but because they just put in this tram, there are no more. So I panicked and headed back towards the internet café, stopping people along the way.
People in Nice are a lot nicer than the Parisians, in my opinion. The first man I asked, who was walking his dog, responded to my “Desolé de vous déranger” with a “Vous ne me dérangez pas!”. He, unfortunately, couldn’t help me. The next two women, a bit elderly, were classic. They not only helped me and made conversation with me while walking their pup, they walked me towards my destination and even made sure I had eaten! They were so kind, and watched me off the hill.
I climbed the hill of death to get to the address that I had saved on my phone, and then checked in to Party Central. I should try to meet people.
A bientot!
James

Nice is... nice... :)

waywardwahoo — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The second Saturday of August in Zurich is a large, open-street rave called Street Parade. Based off of the Berlin Love Parade, it’s supposed to be one of the biggest parties of the year, with vans packed with loud speakers pumping music all around the streets. It’s supposed to be from 1PM-10PM, followed by parties at clubs and bars all around Zurich. Now I’m not much of a raver kid (oh the days where candy kids were so cool), but this sounds like an interesting thing that one should attend at least once in his life.
I am currently on the TGV (Train de Grande Vitesse) to Nice, France. After long discussions with Gabby, who really wanted to have a full weekend activity, we decided to go to Nice.
Told Wang shushu last night, paid last night, and got the internet working, (even though it was an excellent connection, it was a bit slow!) which resulted in me staying up for a good extra 2-4 hours. I’m not sure when I fell asleep, but I know I woke up in the middle of the night to fall asleep correctly and put away the laptop. (You know what, this laptop is a big pain in the butt!).
Made arrangements last night to meet Helen and drop off my suitcase. This morning, I wasted time, especially online, and headed out to 1) go get my ticket, 2) drop off suitcase, 3) catch my train. Well 1. took a bit longer than expected and so on the way to do 2, I decided I couldn’t miss 3 and basically rode the metro around for 2 hours wasting time (I passed the stop I was supposed to get off at and watched the words fly right by my face.) Needless to say, it was a frightening experience, and I thank God that I made my train.
TGV is very quiet, very somber. I get to watch the countryside of France, all while listening to the mother scold and love her child, who is sitting across from me and is right precious.
I guess I should stop putting off the inevitable. I’ll start with the TGV, which makes the most sense.
I remember…
- Last time I took the TGV, I was talking to James (the British tour guide at least a whole foot taller than me) about people that annoy me (who shall-not-be named). I can’t believe that five years ago, I still had a similar personality…I like to believe that I’ve matured but. Anywho.
- Paris being a lot busier than it is now. It might have been because this time when I entered Paris I entered the city at around 8 AM, when most were still sleeping. Also, because it’s August, a lot has closed down for the monthly vacation time. It’s everywhere: you can see it posted on the doors of creepy restaurants and brasseries, you can hear it being spoken about at the boulangerie, when the baker asks her usuals when they are leaving and where they are going, you can feel it in the service of those who are working and not taking their vacation… well not really the last one, although maybe I can use it as an excuse for rude people.
- The city is fatter. It’s gotta be. I blame… I dunno what I blame.
Paris has made me realize things about this trip and myself. But… I am getting nauseated from reading on the train (especially because of the way my seat is facing, I am riding backwards). I could switch seats because most people have gotten off to transfer on the way to Toulouse, but in the interest of also conserving battery power, I am going to log off. More to come when I get to Nice.
BTW, we have no housing in Nice, so hopefully I will be able to find something!
James

Paris, How do I love thee

waywardwahoo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

And I’m sitting here in a full food coma, about to pass out. It’s almost 10 and my people left… I need to let them know that I’m leaving tomorrow, that I need to pay now, and that the internet is still not working! I dunno, I might be getting used to this whole not having internet thing… maybe it’s because I should be going out and doing things and not sitting here on the computer. Oh well. I’ll get back to this when I finish talking about my day.
Started out by deciding to walk to Gare du Lyon, to try and buy a train ticket. Same little yellow machine as the SNCF boutique, but I fiddle around anyways. I find one I like and try to buy it, but apparently foreign (American) credit cards don’t have the little smart chip so I have to go somewhere else to buy it. Zaogao de hen!. I then decide to walk along the Seine towards Paris Plage, because, the sun keeps coming out and fooling me into doing such things. Although I start out on the bank of the Seine basically, I accidentally walk the wrong way, and get lost towards the 11th. This is where I used to live, and I’m starting to recognize things. I think to myself how I should probably go to my old neighborhood, and maybe see if my pizza man (Pizza de Venice) still remembers me… maybe he would have even remembered my usual order (le vegetarian avec un oeuf), but my legs are in pain, and I’ve actually been craving pho all day (grâce à/ à cause de Helen telling my about it yesterday. I’ll let you decide which it is).
I take a train to Olympiades, the new stop right outside the library I was at, to first check to see if the library was still open (so that I could get back online). It wasn’t. Heartbroken, I came back home, but only after a stop to get some pho. I got a large, which came in a small bowl, but believe me it more than sufficed. There were lots of good meats, and lots of herbs to add in, perhaps even better than the number 1 I normally order in the States. Sitting by myself I watched people walk by and the servers hawk gaze on the customers. I ate all of it. I wasn’t hungry at all, I just chose to eat because I was really craving it…everytime I walked past a “traiteur chinoise, veitnamienne, thailandaise, laotienne” meaning Asian, I could smell it and it smelled so glorious. I had to have it, although I had already eaten the other half of the baguette I didn’t have at lunch. Man it made me miss home.
So now I’m here, about to fall asleep. I guess I’ll leave a note for Wang shushu he ta de didi.
Wan’an.
James

It's a big one

waywardwahoo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Damn the weather.
So to be honest, I haven’t really started backpacking yet. Which makes me feel bad because 1) backpacking is cool and 2) blogabond is for backpackers. Well the site also says for independent travelers, which is what I am.
Woke up late this morning, 10:30-ish, but my hosts woke up even later (with evidence of heavy snoring). I got up, washed up, got dressed and headed out. You do remember today’s goals, right? So first stop, the SNCF store down the block, which is for domestic train travel only (I think – there was a long line so I used the automated machine, and only domestic trips were available. I searched for Nice to Paris, which is the only domestic trip that I’ll need. 90E, maybe I should look into getting that rail ticket.
The southern part of the 13th arrondissement is known as Chinatown, and so as I mentioned earlier, it’s like I never left Shanghai. Kinda… it just feels like all my friends left, and all the teachers left, and all the prices jumped up exponentially.
As I was exploring, a woman called out to me across the street, asking me if I spoke French. This is not your normal occurrence, so I crossed the street and we had a chat. Turns out she’s a reporter (for what I’ll never know; when I realized I had no idea, I turned around and she had already made great progress down the street.) She wanted to interview me about the Olympic Games (hence her presence in Chinatown). She asked me my opinion of them and what I thought about them, and I told her that I really support the Olympics and that everyone should as an entire world and not mix in politics. She must have been a newspaper reporter because she recorded my voice on a little magnetophone. (What a random word to remember… that and brancher).
Went to a bunch of grocery stores, looking around. First stop was an Asian grocery, so that I could compare the Asian grocery stores in America with the ones in China. I bought some water and some PEACH DRANK. Drinks are always more expensive if you want to buy them cold. Example: can sitting on shelf .50Euros, can sitting in refrigerated shelf .80Euros, can of soda bought on the street 2Euros. Crazy, n’est-ce pas?
Went on to an Ed (French chain of grocery stores) to buy some cheese for my picnic lunch. After looking around for a while, I went with some fromage du chêvre, 1.85 Euros for 200g. Compared to the States, a lot cheaper, and I do love me some goat cheese. I bought a baguette and headed over to a park. ( I stopped by an internet café to find some more locations that have the Paris Weefee.)
I had lunch in the Parc de Choisy, which is really close to the area that I am. My lunchtime entertainment? A xiao pangzi seeing how many times he could bounce his pingpong ball on his pingpong paddle, because he had no one to play with at the pingpong tables. I ended my meal and got online, chatted for a while before trying to figure out what to do next, when it started to rain! I closed up shop and looked for the bibliothèque, so that I could continue my conversations/ stay dry in doing so.
Explored Chinatown for a bit en cherchant la bibliothèque (et aussi dans le matin). It’s funny because the more things seem to change, the more they stay the same (don’t you hesitate…Girl put your records on…). No I mean, the more different things are, the more the similarities stand out. Outside Les Frères Tang (the largest Asian grocery store in Paris) were two sketchy looking Chinese guys, who at first glance seemed to be guarding a door. The place behind them looked closed down, so I thought it was a shady place, but upon closer inspection, they had Styrofoam boxes standing in front of them on their small side, serving as a table for little zip-up-able discreet bags, filled with – you guessed it, fake DVDs. As I looked around them, there were lots of people standing there selling DVDs, five to be exact, in a trapezoidal pattern. Next to them were those people that write your name in funny little animals and things. Further down the street, fruits and prepared foods, all which were hidden until you got up real close. Shanghai much? Or even Chinatown in New York. I wonder what the Chinatown in Shanghai is like, I don’t think we ever went, although you should feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
The library also had this feel of consistency to it. The quietness, but more importantly, the over-proportional number of Asians. I don’t know whether this can be attributed to the fact that it’s a library or the fact that it was right by Chinatown, but I’m going to use it as a support, and thus I choose the former proposal. It was also a fight to get plugs, as everyone comes there to use the Weefee and stay dry. Luckily I had one most of the time, but selfish me shared with everyone around me, resulting in my laptop dying and so I went home to 1) recharge my battery, and 2) refrigerate the rest of the goat cheese.
The rain killed my plans to go to Paris Plage, to go bike riding around the city (on free bikes! Apparently these are common throughout Europe, in an effort to get people to go green, also while losing weight.
DIGRESSION.
Paris has gotten a lot fatter since I was here last. I thought I was going to make this a full digression, but I will have a whole section on since I was last here later.)
The rain was the kind that is like a flood, and then stops and clears up, and then God decides to rain on you very heavily some more. I generally like those kinds of rains because they’re cooling, and because the sun is out while it rains, it dries up right quick (and so you don’t have that lingering wetness feel), but this time, it kept going and going and going and it was not as fun as you think. And cold is cold, but sometimes it can get too cold.
I’m going to pretend this is where I stop, because this post is getting long. Here’s where I left my computer charging in my room and went to go explore without my laptop (gasp!).
I’m going out. Until I get back from my explorations.
James

Day 1...

waywardwahoo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

What a day!
Leaving the square, the man sitting by me decided to talk to me. He was very happy that I responded to him, because whenever he tries to talk to Chinese people, they tell him “je ne comprends pas”. This led to a discussion/debate on les asiatiques and why some are open to speaking while others are not, different government types, etc. He kept telling me how I made him very happy, but really it was he that made me happy: I had a good conversation, mostly in French, with a French man. Isn’t that my purpose for being here?
Lunch. My school from three years ago was in the St. Germain des Pres area, I could use that metro stop to get to school. Ah the memories. The first day of class, my host mother told me that I should take the bus to school. I insisted on taking the metro; my memories of it then were all good. The metro was fast, cheap, easy-to-use, and most importantly, modernized. I took it every day and every afternoon to and fro class; even though I had three changes, it was the same length of time as the bus ride, so why sit on a bus for 25 minutes at the loss of being cool? Towards the end of that stay, I hated the metro. It was noisy, it was smelly, it was a pain in the butt standing and sitting. I preferred a quiet, 25 minute ride on a bus, allowing me time to listen to my iPod and just sit in the back rather than helping elderly people steal my seat.
Needless to say, I bought un carnet today and not a carte orange/hebdomidaire. Although, there were two options for carnets and I don’t know which I was supposed to buy…I bought the more expensive one just to be safe.
Walked around my school’s area, same old restaurants, same old area, what a great feeling. I stopped at one of the sandwich places I used to frequent, bought a sandwich pate and a coca lite. Went back to the square to: 1) see if the guy was still there (he wasn’t) and 2) get in contact with Helen/Wang Shushu.
After lunch was hectic, basically involving me trying to meet Wang shushu… without a cell phone. He kept saying that I didn’t show up at McDonalds the three times we try to meet. After a few hours, I was found by his didi and settled into the place, which isn’t bad. Although there is no AC. And now I am writing my blog without internet (they have wifi, I can’t figure it out on this damn vista business, and it’s starting to grind my gears.) Police ticket check at the end of the metro line! WOO…memories. Spent after settled in time finding an adapter (almost unsuccessfully, but thank goodness for Darty!) because the laptop plug has an extra pens (male part) and the tumi adapter doesn’t take it. Went over to a Helen’s, practiced Chinese, ate jiaozi; it was like I never left Shanghai . Now I’m back at “my place” 16 metro stops away, and melting even after I took a shower. (See: doesn’t have freaking AC!) I really should ask about the internet but it’s getting late and I’ve got a big day tomorrow. Or do I? My plans? Get some railway tickets, get some internet, maybe even bike tour around Paris… if my legs can handle it. I’m about to pass out so here’s to a long night’s sleep.
PS. Luolan: here it’s pronounced weefee.
Oh and McDonalds? Turns out, we were at two different McDonalds, or MacDo's, which were on the same road, nonetheless! Badabababa... Globalization...I'm lovin' it. Not.

Dream? or nightmare?

waywardwahoo — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I am currently in the le 6ieme arrondissement a Paris, au Square felix Desruelles, sitting on a bench by myself, with the bench left of me occupied by two red-headed...Norweigens? (maybe?) discussing who-knows-what and to the right a woman on a laptop. All this encompassed by pidgeons scavenging for yesterday's sandwich's bread crumbs and backdropped by the St. Germain des Pres cathedral.

Paris has been taking the initiative of installing Wifi in most public places, including parks, bringing her citizens comfort and incentive to head out. And providing me with a way to contact people to try and figure out where I am going to be in the next hour, tonight, and the rest of the week.

You ask: "But James, weren't you just in Shanghai last week?"

It's a funny world, my friends, that's all I can say. I arrived at around 7 this morning, eventually got to Paris, and have been "mozying around eversince. There's so much to say about yesterday at the airport, the flight, and what I've been doing for the past ~5 hours, but first I'm famished.

I'll be back after lunch, if the battery gods allow. And they better, because I still don't have a Sim Card and I need to meet up with people.

A bientot,

James

I'm only happy when it rains...

waywardwahoo — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The rain is constant now, we've come upon the rainy season in Shanghai. What does this mean? Take an already dreary city, where the sun never shines due to the pollution, make it even darker, and add umbrellas everywhere. Next, torrential downpours of water picking up said pollution barrages your face, melting wrinkles and dimples into your skin with an acidic bite.

Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but I don't like being wet. And as of now, I don't have an umbrella. (But wait, James, you said that you had bought an umbrella earlier in the week, and that not only did you not bargain well, due to the fact that you didn't learn to 降价 [jiang4 jia4] until Wednesday's class, but also that your 单班课 [dan1 ban1 ke4] 老师 [lao3 shi1], Gao laoshi, said that you got ripped off for 38 RMB for a large umbrella?)

It all started with Thursday, which is where our story left off (although you, reader, have a blurred vision of my week due to problems with the ECNU liuxuesheng dorms.) Had our review class, which ended early; we finished all the concepts to review way before time. What to do with the extra time? An activity (aka 3rd hour's class). I was a taxi driver, a GOSSIPY taxi driver, and my partner, LuoLan was a depressed woman. What was ironic about this situation was the fact that the night before, LuoLan and I had agreed to do our oral test together, in the form of a presentation + pantomime.

As we found out later that day via email, this was totally not allowed. Well there went my oral score....again. After class, we heard RuiAn's undergraduate thesis about skin-lightening in Shanghai, which touched upon many interesting topics, but not in depth enough (I mean an hour is not enough) + it lacked unity between the subjects, the linkages.

Later that day was painting class, which is being taught by a professional impressionist painter here in Shanghai. Here's a link to his work:
http://blog.sina.com.cn/Mrliuhuiming
I don't think I really like his style/I want to be working on traditional Chinese paintings, which is what I signed up for, but after three hours of painting (in a one hour class), and haggling via the one student he liked (a borderline inappropriate story, perhaps something will develop worth my writing time in a later blog), we should be working on bamboo next class, and I hope to eventually get to cherry blossoms.

At ECNU, there are lots of 留学生[liu2 xue2 sheng1] like myself and the UVA group, and yesterday I met a group from all over France, from the EmLyon Young Entrepreneurs program. Their classroom is in the same building, they just get to have classes really late. I practiced my French, ad hope to get to know them more eventually.

Went out to eat, shouldn't have, fell asleep, and woke up Friday morning with not enough time to do my essays. Worked quickly, was late to class, sweating like a madman. The test was a lot worse than I expected, and a lot harder than I had hoped. I know that I'm not going to be happy with this week's score, so I hope to do better next week (which believe it or not, is going to lead up to the last units for this semester [CHIN201]. We will have covered 13 lessons in three weeks, which is crazy if you think about it, especially because during a normal school semester, we cover fewer than 10 (although there are two dialogues per chapter, the current chapters tend to be longer). We're also two weeks through, so about 1/4 done. Time flies by when... you're "having fun"? How about "in China".

Wait, that sounds like I'm coming off negative Nancy. I had a lot of fun today. After the test and lunch today, which was two liangs (50g) of jiaozi, RuZhen and I went to the 麻将 [ma2 jiang4] party, which was really fun. Learned how to play, and I seriously played for at least three hours, although there were occasional holdups, cough LinKaln

After the Mahjong party, came home, only to nap and wake up to people getting ready to leave to a sushi and meat buffet for 150RMB. Tai gui le, especially if you're not hungry. Instead I rounded up a group to go to a Hookah bar on West Nanjing Rd, Barbarossa.

Originally only four or five, the group of nine filled two taxis and headed off to Barbarossa. It took us a while to get a taxi (which seems to be a common theme nowadays, perhaps due to the rainy season / weekendness?) A common thing to do here is to measure trips not by time, but by taxi ride price. That might be common in the states as well, I don't ride enough taxis to know. Also, if a taxi driver ever asks you if you've been there before, say yes, or else he'll drive you around an extra ten minutes (as the other group paid much less than we did and was sitting there waiting for us...)

Everyone at Barbarossa was chicly dressed... but us. (Alrighty, I'm a little bit po'd again, just found out that due to the crappy internet here my post was half deleted, and that includes the part that was insightful.)

Basically we were really out of place as Barbarossa is called one of the nicest (if not nicest) bars in Shanghai. We were sent to the third floor at a table where our minimum was 1,000RMB, and after much debate we decided to go with it. Two hookahs (peach and melon), ten or so cocktails, and multiple orders of parmesean fries and hummus dips later, we hit the 998, enough in my book for us to leave. Apparently, the fuwuyuan on our floor didn't know/care about the 1,000 minimum, but oh well. We had a good time.

What was your drink, you ask? I had the absinthe kiss: kahlua, some other liquor, and a "hint" of absinthe, as it was described. Really licorice-y apparently due to the absinthe, which apparently is now legal in the states. So that took some of the fun out of my drink...

Took us forever to find a cab back, in the pouring rain. Oh wait, we never found a cab. We took a sketchy bus, packed all of us in and paid 80RMB total, which ... kind of worked out, I guess. Bargaining with private drivers is scary, and not recommended.

At the houmen, we feasted on laduzi sticks and noodles, got some beers, chilled out and that's where we are now.

Reader don't touch that dial... an exciting adventure this weekend will be blogged about afterwards.

Oh and my umbrella? Kindly enough I lent it to Kat, who gave it to LinKaln in the back of her taxi. Linkaln left it there for another person to find and enjoy. That's why I'm only happy when it rains, because people actually pour their misery down on me.

好久不见

waywardwahoo — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

hao3 jiu3 bu5 jian4
Long time no see

According to Intermediate Chinese (our book from last year) the phrase long time no see is a direct translation from the Chinese phrase.

Anywho, it's been a while since I've blogged, let's review what's happened since:

Since Saturday (with the exception of Sunday) we have had a downpour of rain. It's been really crazy; because of the rain, I had to buy an umbrella. Next to one of the agricultural banks (yeah, shenmetf?) there was a woman selling umbrellas. Large ones for 58 RMB. You yi dianr gui. One of my first experiences with real haggling. I said tai gui le, and she asked me for my price. (I HATE it when they do that, it's when the heart comes out). I said 30. She went back to 38. I accepted.

Irony? Today's lesson was on haggling. Third class was explicitly on how to haggle. My one on one, Gao laoshi told me what else I should do...and that I got ripped off for my umbrella. Oh well, it was around 6 dollars for a large and comfy umbrella, not to mention how useful it was the past few days/this morning.

MY POST just got deleted (it's a little bit later). Irony?

Well... had calligraphy class, ate food did stuff. Too put off by this event to try to fix this post. Maybe later if I remember...

I will try harder, better, faster, stronger with my posts. Thanks Kanye!

I'm only happy when it rains...

waywardwahoo — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Yesterday was quite the adventure. Finished catching up on some blogs in the morning. Went to lunch with DuoFu, only to have his appetite ruined by a chicken foot sticking out of his meal. Can't go wrong with Bokchoy!

Came back, tried to get some work done, but it turned into a massive hangout in my room (fun, but wish I didn't waste so much time on the weekend that way, would have rather spent it that way during the week). Basically did nothing until 4, the time we had decided on to go to Old Town. But then it Xia Yu'd, and so we held off.

Right before the rain, LuoLan rang'ed wo get ready suoyi women could go to Tea Storm. Got my strawberry milkshake drink and she got her bubble tea. Went with SiDe (sp?) and stopped by to watch some volleyball on the way. Got to hit the ball back to them because someone hit it off the court. Some of those guys could spike like mad, it makes me want to practice / learn how to play volleyball (review what we learned back in Physical Education, haha).

Due to the rain we all just hung out more, but eventually the rain tapered and we decided to leave. Took four cabs for about 40 RMB each and went to Old Town, or the Yuyuan Gardens. Grand architecture of the gardens is known world-wide, but at night the lights adds to the beauty of the place.

Yuyuan

We ate "dinner" at the famous Nanxiang Mantou Dian, or the NanXiang Steamed bun restaurant. There is always a long line outside of people waiting to just get some of the xiaolongbao, or the little basket buns, especially the crab meat filled ones. We ate on the third floor, however. Our group of 15 was split, and we each got 5: 2 pork/crab, 1 just crab, and 2 chicken. I'm not a big crab fan, so I enjoyed the chicken ones. The buns come in little baskets (hence the name).

We walked around a little, shopped around a little, and then we got dumped on. Almost bought a fake LV wallet, but I could only bring her down 50% (10% or bust!). Spent too much time in a jewelry store selling jade items even up to $100,000.

Tried to catch cabs home, but for some reason there weren't enough/the few that were empty would not pick us up. Eventually we walked out to the main road (my little group of four as everyone had to split up and fend for their group/selves) and we were the first ones back. The taxi driver could have made it in 30RMB, but got lost looking for the houmen so dropped us off at the front gate after 40RMB. How convenient for him.

Walked back, went to the houmen to eat some noodles, pianyi shi pianyi, keshi bu tai hao chi! Got some laduzi sticks, went to the 24-hr kedi and got some traditional Chinese spirit (52%) for real cheap and a big bottle of fanta, ingredients to a promising night. When we got back inside the sushe, the 5th floor was already gone.

The night went on and people tried the drinks, which were not so good, but they did the trick. Later, when the party "ended" (multiple parties + people watching 27 dresses in a room), went up to LuoLans to watch an episode of the office. Santi, NiKe, LuoLan and myself went to get some laduzi sticks (although my normal vendor wasn't there!!!, I feel like I betrayed her) and we had a good 2 sticks each before walking down the street a little. We then came back and got more sticks (another 2 each?) trying unknown meats and even some veggies. Man, they were/are tasty!

Crawled under the gate, hung out/photoshot, and eventually came back to sleep. Some water and a flossing lesson from LuoLan later, I drifted to dreamland to the tunes of Korni and 25-om jetazhe.

TESTing 1.2.3...

waywardwahoo — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

TEST day. WOO, woke up early. not. Studied up until the last minute. not. Took the test, which actually wasn't that bad. Used up 30 minutes of the two hours allotted, WeiAn and I went back to the houmen and split some jiaozi. Chilled out in the sushe with Duofu, Luolan and Weian and went over the questions that we were going to ask for today's practicum.

Practicum 1: Visiting a Chinese Dorm.
- Chinese dorms are shitty
- The Liuxuesheng sushe (ours) is like a 5 start hotel compared to their dorms: why?
They stick 4/6 people in a room half the size of our current rooms, their mattresses are about the thickness of my laptop, they get to share one desk fan on the ceiling between the four of them, all of their beds are lofted. The desks are nice. The bathrooms are crappy, the sinks are dirty and they have to wash their clothes in there/ hang their clothes in the room. Oh, there's a balcony though!
Aside from the few questions we had been assigned, I came up with one: because girls aren't allowed in the dorms, when you and your girlfriend want to make whoopee, zenmeyang? That was a poor choice: it was too personal of a question as I was told. That guy never talked to me again after that during the interview.

Afterwards, we went to a restaurant with the laoshimen, well four of them: Wang, Lu, Li and Zhang. My table ordered the Chinese equivalent of Kung Pao Chicken, Candied Sweet Potatoes (which are apparently Korean...they come out really hot, you need to dip it in a bowl of cold water before attempting to eat it), and jiaozi: beef and carrots (which were salty), pork and corn (AMAZING), and cucumber shrimp (refreshing!). Haohao chi yi hou, we gave the laoshimen a tour of OUR dorms, and they really liked them. I feel bad. We had some of NiKe's chocolates, sang some S.H.E's superstar and just chilled.

After they left, I passed out for a several hours.

Woke up, we went to Kat's suggestion of a noodle place by Zhongshan metro stop. (BTW, Kat has an awesome blog, check it out at http://katinasia.spaces.live.com) She refers to the guy that makes our noodles by hand as the noodle man. It was you amazing, you pianyi, hen fangbian! On the way back I got a strawberry milkshake thing from tea storm, it was good and the fuwuyuan were kind enough to teach me the name for it, although I forgot what it is now...oops.

Came back to dorms, debated the plan for the evening. A group went out to bonbon, but it was too soon for me to be going there again. Decided upon drinking in dorms (VSOC). I didn't feel well (canker sore + headache) so I started my laundry, but then got convinced to head out to a jiu ba/coffee bar. Didn't drink there, had a blueberry milkshake instead, which was quite tasty. Dressed like a bum though, because my clothes were in the wash.

Santi and NiKe got their flaming B52's. That was pretty cool: here, a pic!

I spent the night playing Liar's Dice (see Bonbon, the POTC game) after Santi explained to us how to play. Santi, Kat and I played the whole time, and I think it's my new favorite game.

Came back to the houmen 5 mins before it closed, went back to dorms, moved my clothes to the dryer and basically chilled all night. Drank with Luolan, NiKe was to join us but he disappeared. Went to get my laundry, but turns out you need to push a button to start the dryer, so I waited another hour, people chilled some more. Saw people come back from BONBON hahaha. What a show. Had a one-on-one with RuJin over raisin bread w/ peanut butter and nutella, which was amazingly good as it wasn't Chinese. Laundered, showered, and now it's time to fall asleep.

WAN AN (I think?)

早睡早起，身体好！...right...

waywardwahoo — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

That's right, I've switched to characters!
What it says for my anglophone readers:
Early to bed, early to rise = a healthy body.

Does going to bed at 1600 and waking up the next morning at 0500 count as early to bed, early to rise? Yeah.

Went to dinner with a large group; it wasn't bad but I really don't mind the cantings as much as everyone else complains about. The restaurant was near the school, out the houmen.

Yesterday's one on one with Bao laoshi wasn't so bad. Made it my goal _not_ to talk about fraternities during today's, just so I wouldn't sit there struggling. Lu laoshi's today was more about my major, international relations, political views, oh, and recommendations of TV shows (Family Guy, South Park, Grey's Anatomy, LOST, Desperate Housewives, ANTM...etc.)

It was fun. What was not fun? The hour-and-half-long lecture with Professor Wang from USC about Chinese economics for the past 30 years. Yeah, there was some interesting stuff... but I was struggling to stay awake during the whole lecture. He talked about the program that Kenny did (I'm pretty sure), as he was one of those organizers.

Had noodles again for dinner. Friggin beef gets caught in your teeth.

Just hung out with everyone which was really fun. I'm not gonna lie, I'm feeling a little homesick. I miss my home, I miss my friends, I miss my Beta brothers, I miss Charlottesville; I sound like a little girl, but I could really go for a chicken parmesan sub, in the wise words of Sarah.

Should be doing those take home essays, or studying for tomorrow's test.

I think I'll just faire le systeme "d".

Day 2. It's going to be a long nine weeks...

waywardwahoo — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Pulled another all-nighter, basically.

Class was not bad, still excited about them, even though it's a load of work. My one on one laoshi today was Zhang laoshi. After talking (again... they are obsessed with the idea of fraternity.) with her for most of the hour, we went to the post office to send Liang laoshi (program director / the teacher from the University) a letter. Yeah, what? lol. Had to go to the chuangkou to buy the supplies, then write it (poorly, under the watchful eyes of Zhanglaoshi), glue everything together using rice (insert stereotyping joke here) and then mail it. To mail it, Zhang laoshi had me ask the police officer/official person sitting there in the youju.

Let me just say that not every thing in China looks like it has moved out of the backwardness it was once in. The official looked very Commie, and scared the living daylights out of me. I stumbled up to him and began to stutter at him with rice-glued envelope in hand. He angrily pointed me towards the mailbox outside of the post-office and I scattered off to the laughs of Zhang laoshi, who was commenting on the fact that I should be lianxi-ing (practicing) my Zhongwen.

LuoLan waited for me at the post-office, we stopped by a book store, but they didn't have any gridded notebooks. Went to Trustmart, and Zhang laoshi parted with us there.

I remember what Zhuo laoshi told us about Trustmart the first day during our campus tour: it's a little pricey for their likings. Trustmart is actually, as I found out, a branch of Walmart, which makes sense, as you can by the Walmart generic brand (Great Value?) inside. The prices, as high as they are, are generally still cheaper than their American equivalents, but that just gives you a glimpse at a comparison between the two countries.

Went back, did some homework, slept, same old same old. Time to start studying for Tingxie, the most painful thing in the world. At least today is just one lesson! The gifts you start to appreciate in life!

Seriously? No, are you for seriously?

waywardwahoo — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

So for those of you that know me/ my study habits, you know that this past semester at University was a toughie. Moving into the 400 levels for two of my departments as well as having some classes every day tested my limits. I pulled countless all-nighters and went through some pretty rough times. Add on top of that maintaining some sort of social life and a pledge semester and you have one burned out me.

I pulled an all-nighter last night.

"To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change." ~Charles Horton Cooley

What's the point of me coming to China to study Chinese, I could have done this back at UVA and been with wo de pengyoumen!.

Class wasn't so bad. Here's our daily schedule:
- 8:00 Tingxie, first hour of class. Introduction to the grammar and the text. (today was Wang Laoshi)
- 9:00 Second hour, grammar review / vocal practice making the constructions our own (Zhou)
- 10:10 Third hour, activities / situations that we may encounter and using the constructions. (Gao laoshi)

Between hours, the laoshimen come into the room and find us and set up a time for us to meet with them one-on-one. Today I met at 12:00. Topic began with the grammar and text, but eventually moved on to other stuff, like my family, my fraternity (she was really obsessed with fraternities), and the date auction for Relay for Life! Xu laoshi was hen nice, I hope all the one-on-one sessions go that well!

Took a long nap, then woke up to do homework/study for Tingxie.

At this rate, it's going to be a long... nine weeks... :(

BonBon was really not bon

waywardwahoo — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Sorry that was so tacky.

Bonbon was... an experience. 120RMB for guys, 80RMB for the ladies and the scene was all the hip guys and skanky girls. It was kinda crazy. Occasional bairen, but mostly just very Asian. Some observations/lessons learned:

- they took our tickets, so we were confused as to how it was an open bar: the solution? Signs that say "Don't lose, reuse!" So if you have a cup or a bottle and take it to any of the bars, they will refill you
- it's okay to throw up in the communal bathroom area, just not in the sink. The fuyuan will direct you to the specially placed toilets
- if you're sitting at one of the tables, expect to play the dice game, which according to Luolan, is like yahtzee, but it reminds me more of the game that they play in Pirates of the Caribbean (iMdb says: Liar's Dice).
- bumming cigarettes isn't that hard, but if you're Korean, like yours truly,they will try to talk to you afterwards in Chinese, only to be disappointed with you afterwards
- Waiguoren love meeting other ones, and will tell you where the good bars are. At least most of them
- If you're going to offer a girl a cigarette, make sure you have a phone to get her number; oh yeah, and if she can't speak English, and you can't speak Chinese... it probably won't work out
- canker sores = might allow you to catch something. Just saying

After Bonbon, we came back, but I was so hungry but the back gate was locked, so I stood behind the bars of the back gate basically begging the meat sellers to bring me something, that I had money. They wouldn't come. I went back and asked the doorman what I should do, he said to climb over the fence. I looked, and I was in no physical shape to do that, so I climbed underneath. I ate five of the laduzi sticks, as I like to call them. They were really good, and not laduzi-ful, and there only 1RMB each! I stayed out there and talked to the woman, went inside the 24/7 convenience store and bought some water, started to climb back under, when I met some of the Vancouver students. Three girls, one highly intoxicated, who were all wearing silk dresses that they had made. Not bad, but they proceeded to crawl on asphault in them. They were really friendly, but they were leaving the next day, so bu hao.

Went back home, and Niko was in the kitchenette with a Russian student from NYU. We played some Texas Hold 'Em, Durak (ja russkij jazyk!), and this slapping game of which I forgot the name (not ERS). Stayed up 'til 5 just hanging out, then went to bed and passed out. I was exhausted.

I woke up at 10ish today (don't know why) but I couldn't fall back asleep. I've basically had a migraine all day (perhaps alcohol triggered? I love trying to figure out what triggers each migraine; it's normally allergies, but it can't be here...) and so I stayed in bed having taken 6 or so tylenol. Because I've had a really bad headache all day, didn't start studying my two lessons until after I had woken up (see past 20:00).

Alrighty, I really need to go study, we have our first dictation tomorrow and I want to make a good impression. It's going to be a very, very long night...

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” - Paul Theroux

waywardwahoo — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Definitely didn't know where I was today. Took a tour to the Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai's equivalent of the Eiffel Tower / Washington Monument / Empire State. I'm not big on touristy things. Although, there was a roller-coaster inside, which was literally one-minute long. Definitely not worth the 25RMB.

After that, we went to the water side, from where you could see the Bund on the other side of the river. (Once again, pointless?) We then headed to the People's Square (Ren2min2 guang3chang3). I was confused as to the purpose of today's travels. I truly don't know where we were today/what significance these places had.

Later the group Split up, and because only the Bank of China accepts traveler's checks, we had to find one. My group was Kat, Luolan, Lauren, Chris, and Niko. After a long hour or so at the bank, we had to eat, so we went to this noodle place, where after we all tried to order different things with our wonderful Chinese, five of us ended up with the exact same thing. It wasn't too bad though, so it wasn't an utter failure.

We then got some ice cream, which was different from American ice cream. Went into some shops, and then some malls and the most interesting thing all day: rode the metro several times. It was really fun, although we did get plenty of stares. Some of the metro stations are right cool, they have underground shops and restaurants and flashy colors. Not cool? The mouse that was running around. I scared everyone around me by yelling "there's a f!cking mouse in the metro station! x2. Even not cooler? The guy who first stepped on the mouse's tail with one foot to keep it from running then stepped on the head with the other foot, trying to kill it. He took his sweet time, you could see the thing squirming underneath the pressure of his foot.

Came back to campus, got a few minutes of rest, then got ready to go out to dinner at the Bund, which after much debate I decided to attend (although I was pooped out.)

Oh, for my faithful readers, last night the doorman that I can't understand came to my room and yelled at me for 5 minutes, saying something about my luggage, and then say something about a phone. I went downstairs with him: turns out that they called the dorm because they needed to get in, they were on campus and bringing my bags! I went outside to meet them in the van, they needed my report and passport so I had to run all the way back to the dorm. When I returned, they dumped my bags outside and left. I didn't have any money to give them; I felt bad but tipping isn't allowed here.

I only had one thought at this moment: MES AFFAIRS! haha.

anywho.

went to the Bund, got dinner at a restaurant where our server had FREAK ears. She was cute at first, but then she turned into an evil elf at the end of the meal (it could have been because I kept whispering to everyone about her ears, and people would laugh/shudder in horror... or it might have been because we took forever to pay; I prefer to think of the latter).

Dinner at the Bund, we ate on the third floor of a restaurant. Do you know what that means? We walked up two flights of stairs, a moving dinner zoo for all the zhongguoren eating at the restaurant.

After dinner, we got some pijiu on the Bund. I really don't like beer, but it was buy one get one free, so I split with Sarah. Why buy one get one free? We figured it out: the Tigers (brand) were expired. Hao. Two beers later, we got on the metro to zhongshan gongyuan, we were loud and obnoxious, inviting all the stares that we got. We then ran to the next line, only to be told that the metro had closed. We took two taxis back home.

I think tonight we are going out to BonBon. Shi openbar de.

I hope we don't die.

Hit me baby one more time...

waywardwahoo — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A blast from the past right? Not just that, apparently a Chinese favorite!
Today we had our tour of the campus, which is a lot bigger than I expected. I actually got up early (aka: before 5ish). Walked around through the park, which was feichang crowded with different groups of old people doing taichi to communist-Russia style speakers.

Changfeng park is actually really pretty, there are stones on which you can cross the little rivers, and little paddle boats and stuff to rent. Went back, showered, went out the houmen (back gate) to get breakfast. We had jian1bing3, which were surprisingly delicious, and at 2.5RMB (~$0.36) who can complain! Didn't get laduzi, so I guess I'll be eating that for a while.

My tour leader was Zhuo laoshi. She was really nice, and spoke some English, so that was hen fangbian. My group (besides me) was a first-year, Matt, and second-year, Lincoln. All three of us are in the 200 level Chinese.

Lunch was at one of the cantings, where I had noodles. A really big meal for 4.5RMB. We get dining hall cards and they've come preloaded with 100RMB...I think it'll take me a while to get through all of these! Although there are so many things that I want to try them all...(I'll be the only fat Chinese person [no, I'm not Chinese].

Later, dinner was at one of the restaurants on grounds, where we had our welcoming banquet. There was a lot of food, and it kept on coming. Most of which I liked. I think I'm going to gain weight in China, although we were all talking about not being able to eat anything. The banquet wasn't bad, all of the laoshimen were really nice, although lots of times it was awkward jile. But nothing's awkward unless you let it get awkward! (which is what I did a few times...haha).

Food, hen duo de

Banquet food. Taken from M.

Diao laoshi was set on taking us to KTV (see: karoake bar) after the banquet, so a group of us went. It was def. interesting, both American English and Chinese songs. After a while I got tired sitting there and listening to four minutes of words I didn't understand and only being able to recognize 1/10 of the characters on the TV screen. Diao laoshi was having a ball though.

Oh, I had forgotten to mention that my bags still hadn't shown up. Yeah. Kinda pissed off. But the nice doorman told me that they would be here tonight at 10, so I used that as an excuse to leave KTV w/ Sarah, (and Kira and Jenn) and we went back to campus. I was so excited to finally get out of the clothes that I had been wearing all week (since Tuesday ish?).

Get back to grounds...bags not there. I don't understand what the new doorman is saying to me. I'm smelly, sweaty, disappointed and just want my clothes. Is that too much to ask for?

School's out for summer. Wait...what?

waywardwahoo — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Currently at ECNU; landed on time (if not a few minutes early) only to find that my bags were not there. Filled out paper work, apparently my bags were at LAX. Flustered, I went outside to the airport shuttle busses, and bus six was ready to leave. Got on, couldn’t find the leady, got off, the lady found me. I pointed to the stop and she yelled at me to get back on the bus.

The bus ride was longer than an hour. Walked around a bit and finally hailed a cab. Seemed like the cab was taking me back where I came from, I freaked a little thinking that he had misunderstood my attempt of memorizing the pinyin on the little cheat sheet. At the next red light (the lights at which, the meter moves faster than a second, I swear!), I pointed to the cheat sheet for my safety; my fears were in vain. He dropped me off outside of the gate, I walked backwards and then realized that he had dropped me off outside of the gate, and I entered the campus.

It was very, very… dark. Interesting as well, I don’t know how to describe it. The best way would probably be free time just before lights out at a summer camp. Except most everyone was Asian, something you don’t see at your typical all American summer camp. Had no idea where I was going, so I qing wen’ed someone, only to have him turn me about face and show me that I was right in front of it. I blame the darkness / my inability to read Chinese. Oops. Hopefully that will all be taken care of soon.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” - Lao Tzu

waywardwahoo — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

And so the journey begins …

I am currently on China Easter Flight MU586, watching Will Smith play Mr. Suave in Hitch. I should be studying some more Integrated Chinese, but we just had lunch or dinner (not quite sure which) and my concentration is shot, with help from the man in front of me, who could seriously use a shower.

But I guess it’s my fault, I chose this seat: the plane is really empty and each person has at least 2-3 seats to him or herself. Add that to the smaller stature of the Chinese and this is one of the more comfortable rides I’ve been on (minus the BO of man in 55H).

At least I got on this flight? My flight from Dulles to LAX was delayed an hour, and I wouldn’t have had enough time to catch my connection. American Airlines sent me to United, who flew me with ten minutes to spare to catch my connection. LAX sucks, although some of the scenery isn’t so bad, especially when you’re flying over it.

The hostesses have all spoken to me in Chinese, and continue to do so. I don’t quite know what the options for dinner were, there was rou and shi lai? Took the meat, nothing special. Everything with shui, because I don’t remember the other names, don’t drink soda, and don’t feel like drinking on hour 2 of my 13 hr flight. Although BO55H had a bud, and his face is showing it.

Alrighty, I’m going to try to get through a few more of these lessons, the beginning ones of which I mostly remember. But then again, I’m only two lessons in.